huge nitrate problem

J

jrjeffery

AC Members
Mar 18, 2005
22
0
0
I have recently had an explosion of nitrate in my tank. within 48 hours nitrates went from <10ppm to OH MY GOD! >100ppm. I do not over feed, so I do not understand what happened. Ammonia 0 nitrite 0 can someone help me understand before I lose the softies I have worked so hard to maintain. some of which were tiny when I recieved them. I have done a 20 gallon water change twice in the last 48 hours. As well as added DE*NITRATE to my canister filter. Even after the water changes levels reduced to under 80ppm but quickly rose over 100ppm within hours. What is happening?

Last test: last night 07/17/05 8:00 p.m.
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
NITRATE >100ppm
calcium 360-380 ppm
ph 8.2

Tank specs:

75 gal
fluval 404 canister
hang on protien skimmer (runs 48 straight a week)
Corallife 48 dual power compact florecents
48 florecent blue actintic double 24" bulbs in addition to corallife light hood
4" live sand bed mixed with crushed coral
hang on refugium (approx 2.5 gallon)
3 power heads
approx 70 lbs. live rock

Fish
2 yellow tail damsels (1.5" ea.)
2 domine damsels (2" ea.)
2 maroon clowns (2.5" ea.)
1 Banana wrasse (4")
1 Percula clown (2")
2 mystery damsel ( I cannot find a pic anywhere) (mean little turds though)
2 three stripe damsels

Corals
Three types of shrooms ( total of 10 shrooms)
finger leather (4-5" tall)
pink zenia 2-3" tall 1/2" wide
pumping zenis 2 stalks 2-3" tall 1/2" wide ea.
green star ployp 4-5"
pink star polyp 4-5"
zoanthid rock 6-8" x 4" ( as well as relocated 4-5 polyp peices)

Cleaner
20 large 2" turbo snails
4-5 small reef hermits
1 chocolate chip star 4"
20+ mix small snails cerynth-nassau- etc.
1 small (1/2") decorator crab
 
No Help!

Can nobody help me out here? Is there something else I can be doing to lower nitrate levels?
 
overstocking?

I have some questions before I try to guess what's going on, Did you add anything to your tank in the week before this nitrate rise? Did anything die that might have cause polution in the water?

I've done some research for you and all I can find is that your tank is over stocked. My LFS tells me that you can't over stock your inverts, perhaps you have to many fish? Well I don't know if I'm any help but keep us posted I'd like to see if there a happy ending to your story. keep up the water changes with good quality water. I wish you the best of luck.
 
I agree about the fish load.

I also wonder if the canister may need cleaning. If there's a lot of glop in there, it would generate nitrate.

To have a jump like that would require a ton of rotting material. Dead creature in the rock?
 
I clean the Canister every 45 days. There has been nothing added, nothing died. I thought I lost the wrasse but he hides for days at a time. Then appears out of no where. I have done two more water changes and it seems to have little affect. The refugium has two mangrove plants as well as a good supply of long hair algea. which is harvested every few weeks as some of the snails seem to love eating it. I agree that the fish load is a bit high but I keep a close eye on all perams every other day. When doing water changes I use a power head before syphoning to blow any detrius out of the rocks and the space under the rock work. I am really at a loss. My LFS seems to be puzzled as well. I have counted the snails. All accounted for except one that the choc chip star ate. It was removed long before Nitrate rose. Some of my shrooms are not looking good now,(starting to slime up and let go of their rocks.) I have collected them and put them in th refugium. The star polyps are begining to open up again, but the pulsing zenia is balled up still. Pink Zenia is doing fine. I am lost half of the softies are great other half are okay but not extending fully. I have changed canister on RO unit hoping they may have been dirty. But they were only 4 months old, and our water is soft to start with. HHHEEELLLPPP!
 
Did you really mean every 45 days for the canister? That could be one source of the problem.

To get 100 ppm NO3 in a 75 gallon tank would take somewhere from 30-50 grams of protein. That's quite a bit, especially if most of it happened rapidly.

How long has the tank been going, by the way?
 
The tank has been set up for almost 18 months give or take a month. Should I be cleaning the canister good more often? I check it every two weeks and remove any particulate mater that can be scooped with a fine net. I did not want to kill all bacteria cultures. Am I thinking wrong with this practice? I realize that the rock serves as a filter as well, but the filter moves more water over its filter surfaces per hour. I have not yet had this type of problem, my water has been great from day one. Thats why I am asking you.
 
Here's the theory: Canisters, biowheels, bioballs, etc, are so efficient at converting NH3 to NO3 that they will overwhelm the ability of the live rock and sand to denitrify. Further, the canister will pull food and debris out of the water column and put it into a place where it can break down and provide more nitrate and phosphate. Both of these effects will cause NO3 to creep up. If one is to use a mechanical filter at all, it needs to be kept scrupulously clean.

For a reef tank to function properly, there should be enough live rock so that other biofilters are unnecessary.

So goes the theory.

Is it the source of your problem? I don't know, but there is certainly something going on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom